Introduction to the BrowserHawk Editor

The BrowserHawk Editor is used to view, create, and maintain browser capability information. This definition information is then saved in a special file format known as a Browser Definition File (BDF) and a Browser Definition Data File (BDD).

BrowserHawk comes with cyScape’s browser definitions, named maindefs.bdf which contain all the browser definitions you will likely need. In that case, you will have little need to use the BrowserHawk Editor beyond viewing our definitions for your own knowledge. If on the other hand you have specialized needs in your browser detection, you'll use the BrowserHawk Editor to make your desired customizations.

After launching the BrowserHawk Editor, you will usually proceed to load a BDF file and work with it in the Editor. Once the file is open you can view its current browser definitions, customize the definitions or create new ones, and even test user agents that you expect to hit your web site to see exactly what browser capability information the BrowserHawk ActiveX component will return to your web script when that browser hits your site.

If you have made changes to the BDF you can elect to save your changes to make them permanent, at which time the BDF is also written out to its corresponding BDD file. Otherwise you can close the BDF and you changes will be discarded after your confirmation.